On first-time parenthood, second-time fixer-upper real estate, and other intersections between "personal" and "finance."

06/18/2014

Liberals do THIS and conservatives do THAT

Here are recent developments that all go together ...

1. Conservatives want big houses & liberals want walkable communities. A recent poll showed that, when given a choice between "The houses are smaller and closer to each other, but schools, stores and restaurants are within walking distance" vs. "The houses are larger and farther apart, but schools, stores and restaurants are several miles away," 77% of consistently-liberal people chose the former while 75% of consistently-conservative people chose the latter.

(How to tell your exeurb is becoming infested with liberals? Ethnic food. Or its nonunion equivalent, i.e. P.F. Chang or Chipotle. I question labeling Chipotle as a liberal brand, since I keep running across "lifestyle bloggers" who skew rightward and gush about that place only slightly less than they do about pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. But I suppose some folks have the ability to embrace the lifestyle cachet of fresh, local food or decent wages while completely ignoring the larger policy issues that make these things possible or not.)

I have to admit that this self-selection for homogeneity makes me nervous. I've been nervous about it for nearly ten years, ever since I read "The Urban Archipelago."

And here is my own admission of bubble residence: If there is an equal and opposite manifesto urging readers to abandon the cities and all who live there, to turn their backs on the "blue" states and their works? I can't recall what it is.

Comments

What's happening is that the internet is not "default liberal" anymore. It used to be that the internet communities were mostly rich white urbanites and college students, demographics which are massively liberal. But now that computer access is something you can get for thirty bucks a month if you have a smartphone, a lot more grandmothers and housewives and shopowners are getting online, and they're realizing that they're not isolated wrongthinkers, that there is a large part of the American citizenry who agrees with them, that it's not necessary to shut up and swallow your opinions to find people to talk to.

So why hang out with people you hate who spew vicious bullshit, who look at you with thinly-veiled contempt? Just go hang with your peeps on Facebook or a message board, who genuinely enjoy your company, who believe that there's value in what you say.

And here is my own admission of bubble residence: If there is an equal and opposite manifesto urging readers to abandon the cities and all who live there, to turn their backs on the "blue" states and their works? I can't recall what it is.

White flight.

I'm only being sort of sarcastic. There are a couple small movements to make South Carolina and/or New Hampshire a libertarian paradise, but I don't know how many people have actually participated.

Here's another bubble moment. My adopted son is not the same race as me. In Oakland, I have yet to hear, "oh are you babysitting" or "where's his mommy?" In Arlington, Texas? I get that all the time. We do live in different worlds.